Director Danny Boyle has revealed that a David Bowie project he wanted to do was stopped because the singer would not let the film-maker use his music.

Boyle said he and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, who wrote the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, were left "in grief" when Bowie turned them down.

The Slumdog Millionaire director said he wanted his latest movie, about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, to "fill the space in my heart left by the abandoned Bowie script".

Talking to the Radio Times, Boyle said the let-down of the Bowie project made him even more determined to get the Jobs film made.

The new movie, with a screenplay by The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, stars Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet.

Boyle told the Radio Times he was "desperate" for Fassbender to play the lead.

"I don't think there are many actors in the world who can take on that kind of role, but Michael is one of them."

Boyle added: "It was spooky. Michael made Jobs his own and the two became one. Jobs was totally binary: he said there were only gods and shitheads. He made beautiful things, but he was poorly made himself. Michael is tough on him. He brings a ferocity to him that is accurate, I think."